First Embroidery: Finished, originally uploaded by kpwerker.

When I was in the seventh grade we had to take home ec. I hated it. Mostly because I hated my teacher. She was everything the stereotype isn’t—cold, hard, severe. What she lacked in imagination she made up for in negativity. I remember some of the projects we worked on that term, but one sticks out. It was a monkey pillow and I loved that thing. My machine sewing was uneven and the stuffing was lumpy, but I rocked the embroidery on the face. In fact, the only thing I learned in that class that stuck with me is how to do backstitch embroidery.

That feeling of success from embroidering never left me, but it wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I sat down and did some for real (discounting minor features I’ve put on crocheted dolls and the like over the years).

I have a larger project in mind, but wanted to get my feet wet on scraps first. I cut a piece from a big, old curtain I’ve been harvesting for years, bought a couple of patterns (robot and big star, bird and flowers), and a bunch of thread and needles, and whipped this up.

It is intensely liberating to craft in a medium that isn’t yarn!

12 responses to “Whispers of Home Ec”

  1. gale (she shoots sheep shots) Avatar

    Love!
    (am also revisiting embroidery, although mostly in my mind, and looking at old old freestyle projects!)

  2. Melanie Avatar

    Aw, it's great. Adorable. Love it!

  3. Sister Diane Avatar

    Awesome! I love seeing you doing all this creative exploration. And this is darn great stitching work!

  4. Mercedes Avatar

    Sweet! It is liberating to have a non-yarn creative outlet; I feel that way about bookbinding and film photography.

  5. Denise Avatar

    I agree. I always have one knitting project, one cross stitch and one embroidery project on the go. Yours is so very adorable.

  6. lynn Avatar

    I love this! What a cute project! I have done all kinds of crafting over the years: lots of crochet, cross stitch, needlepoint, some quilting. But your post here reminded me that the (very) few times I've embroidered, it was a blast. I think hand embroidered tea towels are the coolest; why have I not made any? Thanks for this inspiring project. I think I'll start looking around for some patterns. Where did you get the pattern for this, just at a general crafts store like Michael's?

  7. Kim Werker Avatar

    Right on! I bought the patterns from Etsy sellers; I linked to them in the
    post.

  8. lynn Avatar

    I love this! What a cute project! I have done all kinds of crafting over the years: lots of crochet, cross stitch, needlepoint, some quilting. But your post here reminded me that the (very) few times I've embroidered, it was a blast. I think hand embroidered tea towels are the coolest; why have I not made any? Thanks for this inspiring project. I think I'll start looking around for some patterns. Where did you get the pattern for this, just at a general crafts store like Michael's?

  9. Kim Werker Avatar

    Right on! I bought the patterns from Etsy sellers; I linked to them in the
    post.

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